'The HRW report“disproves” the US investigation’s claim that there was “insufficient evidence” of civilian casualties during the strikes, Nadim Houry, director of terrorism and counterterrorism division at Human Rights Watch, told RT.

“There is enough evidence to indicate that many civilians were killed, dozens,” Houry said. “When we asked them [US-led coalition]... on how they conducted their investigation they said these were...secrets that they could not share with us.”

In two of the attacks in Tabqa and Mansourah, a US-led coalition aircraft struck a school housing displaced people in Mansourah on March 20, and a market and a bakery in Tabqa on March 22, HRW said. In its 42-page case study, the HRW added that IS (Islamic State, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists were present at both sites, along with a number of civilians.

The US-led coalition’s Combined Joint Task Force (CJTF) said that coalition forces targeted what they believed to be an IS intelligence headquarters and weapons storage facility. CJTF also noted that prior to the Mansourah strike, its surveillance observed no civilian activity at the school site.'